Here we are, a lovely day in August in Virginia.  I know, right?  That sounds so unlike me to say that.  It’s because it’s low 70’s and overcast (we’re desperate for rain!!!) and there’s a nice little breeze and I have spent the day making some cute little fabric yo yo’s (they’re not the toy kind – they are more like little decorative fabric swirlies) with some scraps I have left over from other projects.  There are 3 big Yankee Candles going so the house smells lovely (a combo of Cafe Au Lait, Good Morning, and Blueberry Scone).  My new Cooking Light came in the mail.  And we spotted about half a dozen wild turkeys in the backyard this afternoon.  I tried to get a picture, but alas, they were too fast.  Our neighbor’s cat was out there as well, but I could tell she was rethinking her plan to play with those particular birdies.  They ambled off back further into the woods and I couldn’t properly follow since it is still summer afterall, and there is still a bit of thicket going on that is difficult to navigate.  All I could think as I headed back to the house was Darn!  I could’ve had some Thanksgiving dinner there! Oh well.  Not that I’d actually be able to take one of them down.  I just wouldn’t be able to hunt unless I absolutely had to.  Which is why when I get my chickens I will be using them for their eggs and not their meat.  I don’t think I could butcher an animal I’d been caring for.  Now if someone brought me something they had killed that was already dead and I didn’t have to feel guilty and be the reason it had to die….well then that’s different.  I am probably a total hypocrite, but hey.

Anyway my day was going pretty well, despite the dog poop.  Yes, for those of you that are wondering – I am still dealing with the occasional poop.  Like after I brought Pippa back inside this morning after her outdoor bm and she promptly did another loose one on my wood floor right inside my front door.  She’s “had the squirts” as Paul ever so delicately said, all day today, so she’ll be getting a nice immodium pill in her dinner.  But that isn’t what killed my lovely almost – fall day.  What killed it was that in the middle of enjoying the lovely outdoors and picking some squash while Neve frolicked on the swingset and I was reveling in the weather, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye.  Caterpillar?  There are plenty of those around my veggies, as well as bees and various types of beetles.  So I casually looked up.  And about a foot from my right hand I saw:

I jumped.  I screamed.  I swore.  I cried.  I got chills and goosebumps.  And I most certainly did NOT take this picture.  Paul did.  Right before he doused the sucker with that most trusted of resources,  brake parts cleaner.  A LOT.  And then whacked it repeatedly with the can.  Even Paul was impressed by its size.  All I could think of was the banana spiders we used to see when I lived on Guam back in the day.  Of course they had blue on them as well as the yellow, but this guy was the right size anyway.  HUGE.  That is a technical term, btw.  I get the willies just looking at the picture.  I think the children may be scarred for life.  Emily declared she would never set foot outside again.  I am not sure I want to either!!!!  I can tell you I’ll have a hard time reaching into the garden now!